The Best Magic Shop In The World
by ChaosWithImagination
Summary: Real Magic isn't all tricks and misdirection sometimes it is as simple as trust, love and faith. Bu Bu should know, after all, she runs the Best Magic Shop in the World.


Bu Bu had been running Iongs for ten years when her daughter left The Eye. It wasn't that she didn't know that the Eye was real or didn't understand the importance of what they were doing. It was that she had fallen in love with someone who didn't believe and the power of her love was more than her love for the cause. Bu Bu could not bring herself to blame her daughter even though she tried. She had known that Ri Ri would never have the stamina for the Long Game so with a heavy heart she let her go. But the Eye takes care of Its own and Ri Ri was still a magician even though the only magic she did after she was married was to keep the Great Secret. But for The Eye, that was a great gift and she would live well to the end of her days.

* * *

It was a further five years before Ri Ri began to have children. Bu Bu had been thinking hard about finding an Heir for Iong's, for she was growing great in years and she was beginning to feel it. She had seen many magicians of various skills pass through her shop but no one had that Spark in them that she could nod and say to herself, 'Ahh…that is one that I can trust all of this Magic to.' Then Li was born. He was the third of Ri Ri's five children and as soon as Bu Bu looked upon his tiny face; she knew. This boy was her Heir. She had said and done nothing; unwilling to hope too much despite the calm assurance that made her hope refuse to die. But her faith was rewarded as one by one Ri Ri's children outgrew the Magic Shop; all of them but one. By the time he was ten; Li was practically living at Iong's. He had a quick mind and an even quicker hand and Bu Bu beamed with pride at his accomplishments. But Ri Ri had long been under the influence of her husband and she had now lost belief. Her love for magic was now replaced with a hatred that stemmed from regret and self-loathing. To Bu Bu shame and sorrow; she fought to destroy the Spark that Li held but he was a strong one and the Magic in him would not be quelled. Bu Bu well remembered the terrible fight between Li and his parents. The harsh words flashed like blades and rained down like daggers until Li could no longer withstand the constant assault. But instead of giving up Magic he held onto it with iron fists, moving in with Bu Bu a year later. The Eye takes care of Its own and Li was a magician. When his schooling was done and the Eye made contact; Li had been ecstatic to know that all stories that she had told him were true. And to her great surprise, he choose of his own accord, the front desk of the Shop. When she has asked him why he didn't choose a life out in the Light, he said,

"For me, Magic takes two forms. There are those who use it to make themselves better and there are those that use it to make others better. I like to do the latter. Besides, everyone knows that the real Magic takes place behind the scenes."

* * *

Two years later, Allan Scott-Frank walked into their lives. It was the most insignificantly significant meeting of Bu Bu's entire life. Because when Allan finally made himself known; Bu Bu realized that he had been to the shop and had spoken to her, at least five times in the last week. What had been even more impressive was that the only disguises that he had used was a scarf, a sunglasses and a bowler hat. And not all together. He had one of the most forgettable faces she had ever seen and had honed that fact into a skill that made him like a chameleon.

"I have a great eye for detail," he told her, as he presented her with a Tarot Card from The Eye, "I can become anyone, sound like anyone and blend anywhere you would like me too. I could have just come and given you the card, but I always believe that actions speak louder than words." His mandarin was impeccable and his accent was completely native. Bu Bu expected that it would have sounded strange coming from his lips but instead it felt completely natural. The young man really was a good as he said he was. It also turned out that he was a lot like Li in that he liked helping others to get better. He pitted his skills against magicians that came into the shop and _enjoyed_ being discovered. Bu Bu asked him about it since most magicians hated being caught when they were trying not to be.

"I know the limit of my skill," he said in his native British accent, "And unlike most people, I do not attempt to go outside of it. It is like the difference between a flashlight and a laser. Most magicians are like flashlights; when they feel that they have reached the limit of their abilities they changed the bulb to make it brighter or they change the flashlight to make it bigger and more powerful. That is their way of getting better. Me, I am a laser. I work within my limits, focusing my set skills to such an extent that I can cut through any barrier in my way. So every time someone finds me, I can see my faults and hone my skills just a little bit better. I may be unnoticeable but I will in no way be incapable."

Bu Bu wondered how someone could be so pompous and full of himself and still not sound like he was. She also wondered when this prim British Magician stopped being a stranger and started being a member of her family.

* * *

It was many years later, when they had finally settled out the Greenwich Observatory; that a bit of real magic stepped into their lives. It started off like one of those bad jokes that Li and Allen liked to trade. Two magicians walk into a magic shop and Bu Bu saw in them the ability to make magic unlike anything people had ever seen before. They were young, full of life and ideas and most of all, they had in them the mindset to play the Long Game. And so it began one of the longest magic tricks of all time, played by Lionel Shrike and Thaddeus Bradley. A lifelong game of misdirection and beautiful magic that drew the entire world in. With those two visiting her shop and later joining the Eye, Iong's was kept very busy. It was a lovely time and frankly the best time Bu Bu had ever had. But the magic didn't stop there. One day Lionel brought in a tiny boy with a spark in his eye that Bu Bu had never seen before. It was as if the child was pure magic. She watched him wander the shop with an open, amazed face; drinking in all that he could see and what his father told him. At the end of the visit he had run up to her and said in halting mandarin,

"This is the best magic shop in the world!"

But the magic was not to last and Lionel Shrike fell victim to his own trick. Bu Bu, Li, Allen and Thaddeus mourned him a way the world would have never been able to. The world felt cold and empty without his magic in it and Thaddeus now played just half the trick but Bu Bu knew that of all those that mourned, he felt it the most. He was still as a good a magician as he ever was but he was a broken man. Lionel and Thaddeus were as connected as two people ever could have been for their magic was irremovable intertwined with each other. But Thaddeus kept on; performing the misdirect but there was precious little magic to hold the world. The Eye takes care of its own but there was little it could do in terms of the heart. Bu Bu watched Thaddeus grow into a bitter cynical man and she prayed daily for some magic to find its way back to his heart.

* * *

The Eye takes care of its own but to this day Bu Bu is still shamed by what transpired with Lionel's family. Lionel's wife refused anything from them despite of what happened with the claims, blaming them for bringing about the death of her husband. Technically she was right but Lionel also knew the risks. It was a lame argument to put forward for a grieving wife and she took out her anger on the Eye in the only way she knew how; she denied Lionel's son of his father's heritage. Dylan would not be a magician. But magic is a hard thing to kill and even though it took him years to find his way back; Dylan Shrike walked through the doors of Iong's with a card from the Eye and told Bu Bu that he needed somethings for a trick. There was still that spark in his eyes but the purity of his magic was tainted with something darker and while Bu Bu feared for him she also knew that he was destined for great things.

It was eerily similar to those years when Lionel and Thaddeus had made her shop alive with activity. What Dylan had planned was the epiphany of a Long Game and frankly she was quite impressed with the young FBI agents plans. It was just like his father's game of misdirection and magic; only this time there wasn't two magicians involved but five. Dylan Shrike, the Master and Misdirector and his Four Horsemen to make the magic to capture the world.

And capture the world they did; with magic so amazing that people talked about their shows for months after. But while they played the world with their magic they all failed to see the real magic happening among them. There is saying among the magic world that the closer you look , the less you see. Well the Five Horsemen fell prey to their own creedo. For while they all were so focused on their tricks they didn't see when a street rat trusted his own life to three strangers. They didn't see when a control freak allowed himself to slip the reins over to others in order to get things done. They didn't see when a hermit with extreme trust issues let himself be managed by people that could easily screw him over again. They didn't notice when an escape artist bound herself closely to three other people and didn't leave a backup plan for escape. And they didn't see when a young man playing a bitter, angry thirty year game let go of his vendetta for a group of people that had suddenly become more important.

* * *

Then disaster struck again. No one died physically this time but some of the magic did. Henley left them and suddenly there were just four. It hit them hard when it suddenly came to them that they had become a family of sorts without realizing it. But that magic was dimmed by their loss. To their credit they stuck it out; holding steadfastly to each other despite the wounds both hidden and open. With his Long Game over, Dylan had become like a ship without an anchor. There was no direction on his compass and he spent two months floundering while trying to hold his little magician family together. Bu Bu would have feared more for him if she hadn't seen that the spark in his eyes were now free of the taint. He was ready to do real magic but all he needed was direction and purpose. He needed to recognize the magic he had in order to create the great magic he was capable off. It was a long, dangerous task that could have gone very badly and almost did. Thaddeus once again played a misdirect but he also stepped up and set in motion a little magic of his own. Dylan emerged from the bottom of a river, surrounded by his four Horsemen and finally saw what he had been looking too closely to see. He already had a purpose for living and all the magic in the world that he could ever want or need was looking down at him. And in that moment the spark in him truly came to life.

They played one of the greatest magic tricks the world had ever seen and with it reclaimed the magic that they had lost between themselves and finally the Eye saw in Dylan what Bu Bu had seen all those years ago. The Great Magician had finally appeared. Only wounds were healed, long secrets came to light and The Eye itself had found Its successor. And Bu Bu still had a lot of work to do. After all she did run the Greatest Magic Shop in the World.


End file.
